Rescue
by Deandra
Summary: Eomer is being held prisoner and his family comes to his aid. Fluffy little ONE-SHOT. Part 7 of the Elfwine Chronicles.


_**Part 7 of the Elfwine Chronicles. The Elfwine Chronicles are a series of one-shots, of which there will definitely be three, but MIGHT be more if I come up with more ideas.**_

_Magsluvsaragorn - Yes, Eomer is very "frowny" in the movies. You'll notice that I let him get a little bit frowny in some of these (old habits die hard), but Lothiriel and/or Elfwine always get him over it!_

_For those who wondered, in Fairy Tales, Elfwine didn't pull that 50 Orc story out of the air - he had heard it before! (That's why Eomer was hoping Lothiriel had gone back to sleep and didn't hear about it!)_

_Regarding Elfwine, Eomer and the horses - I consider this sort of the ME equivalent of the new fathers who buy their son a baseball glove for their first birthday (or sooner)! They can hardly wait for the kid to grow up enough to do "guy stuff" with them._

_As for Lothiriel, well, there is the old joke that the reason women get married is to teach them how to raise children (hubby being child #1)! I think many wives feel like they are the only grownup in their house sometimes!_

**Rescue**

**(Mar, 8 IV)**

"I miss Papa," Elfwine lamented. My six-year-old sat scowling at his breakfast, head propped up by his left hand and elbow on the table. He shoved his food around the plate with his fork and let out a sigh.

Eomer had been on a trip to Gondor for the past month and, when he returned a week ago, he was immediately swept into meeting after meeting to catch up on all the business that was on hold in his absence. We had seen little of him after we welcomed him home. He usually came to bed after we were already asleep and rose before either of us was up. Only occasionally had he shared a meal with us, but had eaten in haste and dashed away before we were done.

Truth be told, I missed him too. And, with me, that's dangerous. My mind started working on an idea and it wasn't long before I told Elfwine, "Finish up your breakfast and then you may go play. I will see you a little later." I stood and gave him a kiss before heading out of the dining chamber set aside for our family.

It did not take long for me to locate Gamling, my husband's Doorward. When I outlined my plan to him and asked what could be done, he smiled sympathetically. "Let me look over his schedule and see what I can arrange, my lady."

I nodded and told him, "I will be in my chambers for a bit, doing some mending."

Within the hour, he found me there and said he had been able to allot two hours the next day, during the midday break, for me to implement my idea and, on impulse, I gave him a hug - quite startling the poor fellow!

I quickly went in search of my son and brought him in on the planning for the next day. He could barely contain his excitement at the prospect, and I felt lighter-hearted as well in anticipation of time alone with my family, if only briefly.

The remainder of the day was much as the previous week had been. We got little more than a glimpse of Eomer, and even from a distance I could see how tired and careworn he looked. I hoped our scheme would help him as well.

xxxxx

The next day dawned bright and beautiful, as though wanting to play its part in what we had up our sleeve. Eomer was long gone when I arose, but Elfwine came bounding into our room before I had arisen, already anxious to set the wheels in motion. I sent him off to dress while I did the same and, once breakfast was out of the way, we began to gather what we would need.

At the appointed hour, Gamling came from Eomer's study and gave me a nod, indicating that he had the situation in hand for me to go ahead. I picked up the basket sitting nearby and sent Elfwine off to his father.

Elfwine hurried into the study, without bothering to knock, causing Eomer to look up sharply and ask, "Elfwine? What are you doing here? Papa has a lot of work to do and cannot play with you right now."

"It is all right, Papa! Gamling says you can come with me and help Mama."

Eomer's brow furrowed in curiosity as he stood and came around the desk, "What are you talking about?"

Elfwine grabbed his hand and tugged him toward the door, "Come and see, Papa. Gamling says it is all right!"

Feeling mildly foolish, but more than a little interested, Eomer allowed himself to be pulled along by his son. They made their way down the hall and out the side door of Meduseld. In minutes, he found himself in the garden near the back of the terrace, and Elfwine led him to a shady spot under a tree. There he found me, sitting on a blanket and smiling up at him. With a swift glance he took in the picnic basket sitting nearby and asked, "What is all this?"

I rose and moved into his arms, placing a firm kiss on his lips. "This is our attempt to get you back into our lives, even if only for a short while! Gamling has agreed to let me steal you for the next two hours, and I fully expect you to think of nothing more than me, Elfwine, lunch and the sun on your face, my lord!"

He pulled me close and rested his forehead on mine with a sigh, "Do not think I have not missed you as well. There is just so much that needs to be done..."

"And it will still need doing two hours from now, but until then remove it from your mind. And if you cannot, I will kiss you senseless and then let your son tickle you mercilessly!"

He gave a hearty laugh, "A fate I would willingly succumb to, but I think I would also like to eat and talk with my family for awhile."

And so we sat and ate, but we also talked. Elfwine excitedly filled Eomer in on all his activities while his father was away, not the least of which was when Eothain had taken him to the stables to witness the birth of a new foal. Eomer sat with a rather giddy grin on his face, listening to our chatter about mundane matters, obviously glad for a reprieve from things that needed his attention.

Still, he did not manage to keep his mind from straying back to business and, after learning about the foal, he commented he needed to check and find out how many foals they could expect this season and asked me to remind him to do so.

I glared at him in mock rebuke, "My lord! Did I not warn you not to speak of such things? Now you must pay!" I lunged at him, catching him off-balance and knocking him over. I pinned his shoulders and arms to the ground with my body laid across his chest and directed Elfwine, "Tickle him! Show him no mercy!"

Elfwine gleefully followed my instructions and set to work. I could tell Eomer's efforts to escape were half-hearted at best, but finally he did throw me off of him, and set to tickling his son and then his wife. While tickling me, Elfwine jumped on his back and helped me to fend him off, and at last we all collapsed breathless on the ground, laughing contentedly. Eomer glanced over at me and commented, "That was the tickling part, but where is the 'kissing me senseless' part you promised?"

I smiled coyly and said, "Turn in early tonight while I am still awake, my lord, and I may be inclined to accommodate you!" From the look on his face, I doubted very much an entire eored could keep him from retiring at a reasonable hour this night.

Sated with laughter, we ended up with Eomer's head in my lap, and Elfwine laying on top of him, as we talked more and just enjoyed being with one another.

Too soon it had to end, and I saw Gamling hovering nearby to signal the end of our little escapade. Reluctantly we released Eomer back to his kingdom, but not before the two of us assured him we would resort to such drastic measures again if need be!

THE END

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End note: It is not essential that you read the Elfwine Chronicles in the order they were written, but there is an advantage to doing so. The more of them that I wrote, the more likely I was to make reference to one of the previous ones and something that happened there. If you want to read them in order, go to the top of this page and click on my name (Deandra). That will take you to my profile page. Scroll down and you will find all the stories I have written. The Elfwine Chronicles are in order from bottom to top since ffn shows them in the order they were posted. A few were posted out of number order (#15 came after #17, I think), but you can read them in posting order or number order since those few won't be affected in the story content.


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